About Us

The real estate market in Prague has undergone a revolutionary change during the last ten years and yet is it equally difficult to find housing, which meets the current high requirements and expectations of clients. Over the last ten years, apartments, houses and offices have changed tremendously and so did the services of the agencies offering these real estates for sale or lease. A person interested in acquiring a real estate as a home, for lease or as an investment is overwhelmed by a disorganised avalanche of offers and looks for the real professionals of the renowned real estate brands who respect the personal taste of each client and are able to satisfy any request with an optimum result and with the guarantee of legal certainty of the funds necessary for acquisition of a real estate.

Two decades of successful activity have put the V.I.P. Homes, s.r.o. real estate agency among the “top ten” agencies, which gained good reputation and respect in the field of residential leases among foreign companies and members of the diplomatic community as well as among cooperating real estate agencies.

Since 1991, we have found homes for clients from various fields: financial companies, diplomatic circles, banks and companies with global presence. Persons looking for homes contact us because we offer a wide choice of real estates in the best parts of Prague; real estate owners contact us because they want tenants from foreign companies.

The portfolio of our real estates with good references and recommendations of satisfied customers is expanding. Our many-year successful presence on the market corresponds to the broad spectrum of real estates we offer for sale or lease, ranging from classical apartments in historical districts, through much-sought-for lofts in former industrial buildings, family houses, terrace houses and residential villas, to luxurious projects for successful businesspersons and trendy apartments for artists and intellectuals.

The primary criterion in acquisition of a real estate is the choice of locality. Small or big, always with a prestigious address!

We offer absolute confidentiality to our VIP clients and we are honoured if they recommend us to their friends and acquaintances. We do not speak about them because we wish them to speak with their friends about us.

Our motto:

Seeking out exceptional opportunities for living in prestigious parts of Prague is not only the business of our company but it is also about the pleasure derived from the authenticity of local and foreign designers, architects and the genius loci of the city.

Our major clients include embassies and their employees, whom we have leased apartments and houses at prestigious addresses:

Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 15 years of successful cooperation

We in press

THE PRAGUE POST - December 13 - 19, 2000

Highflyer lands close to home

Customer service pays off for former flight attendant
BY JANA BAUEROVA

Though she works long hours, she looks I0 years younger than her real age and smiles constantly. Her V.I.P Homes real estate office‘ in a two-story house on a quiet street In Prague 5, Is dec­orated with English-style furniture.

Not a typical Czech woman, Maria Mihinová is an admittedly happy workaholic, frequently working I2-hour days and most weekends.

Although she was born in what is now Slovakia, Mihinová has lived most of her life in this coun­try. She studied tourisrn in a col­lege In Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) and after her graduation spent a year and a half in England.

Following the events of 1968, Mihinová decided to go back to Czechoslovakia.

"Not many people returned back home, so I was looked upon as sus­picious. I could not find a job for a long time," says Mihinová. But eventually she did find one: Czech­oslovak Airlines (ČSA) was looking for flight attendants and she was hired.

"This was a very good job because even though ordinary peo­ple could not travel, I saw the whole world," she says.

Unfortunately, ČSA set a retire­ment age limit of 40 and she was forced to leave the job after nearly 20 years. Eventually, she started working for a travel agency that took care of "V.l.P." tourists.

While working there she met an American-Slovak who had a spe­cial request. He was not interested in historical monuments, hut In houses and living here. He asked if she could find an apartment for him and explained how the real estate business worked In the United States. And thus V.l.P. Homes was born.

"I understood it was a very well ­paid job which a lot of American women do. It seemed like a right start to a new life," says Mihinová.

The Slovak entrepreneur started with nothing in 1990, and thanks to long hours, excellent customer service and her strong will, the list of V.l.P. Homes‘ clients grew. Today she has five employees and her client list includes names like Tel Source, Peugeot, Deloitte 8~ Touche and Credit Lyonnais.

Her firm deals primarily with renting luxury apartments or resi­dential houses in the center or elite neighborhoods like Hanspaulka because many of her clients are foreigners with children.

V.I.P. Homes‘ approach to cus­tomers is very much influenced by her work in the airlines: fulfilling the customer‘s needs, says Mihi­nova, who speaks German and English.

"We try to provide maximum comfort to our clients, we pick them up at the airport, drive them around, give them overall informa­tion about living in Prague."

There‘s only one thing she says she has a hard time with: she can‘t stand losing. "Real estate is like waves, sometimes things do not work out the way ~you want them to. My mistake Is that I view this as my personal failure"‘ says the 52-year-old businesswoman.

Mihinová got divorced after set­ting up the agency, and admits that it was work and no time for her family that killed her marriage. She says it is difficult to fit In time for regular yoga practice on a quick meeting with her 23-year-old son. But If her work pace grows unbear­able, she has a solution.

I still do have the advantage of free flights so every time I'm tired from real estate; I jump on an air-plane and travel to the opposite side of the world. Or at least to Paris for a weekend," Mihinová says with a laugh.

REALITNÍ a stavební PROFIT 4 / 2 0 0 0

Living for V.l.P

More information about her real estate agency we obtained from its owner, Mrs Mária Mihinová. Real estate agency was settled by a chance. Mária Mihinová has worked as flight attendant, after 1998 decided to stay at land. She has been using her language knowledge in a travel agency, which was offering exclusive services for individual clients who do not travel to Prague because of its monuments. She met an American-Slovak who had a special request. He was not interested in historical monuments, hut In houses to live there and to settle his firm. The contract has been signed and American-Slovak offer s a provision common in such a business abroad.

„That was my first premium and motive for following work. I had to learn to write contracts and to notice interesting places and houses, to find out their owners as well as potential customers. Beginnings without telephone, not only without a mobile, has not been simple at all. During last nine years a lot of things changed. I write contracts in computer, I do not move without mobile and when I visit the houses I usually do not drive to answer a numerous questions of clients.‘ Mária Mihinová can speak several languages, but German is most frequent, so most of the clients are from german-speaking countries. She obtained the contacts from german embassy she co-operates with for nine years.

For three years she co-operates with Dutch company Tel Source. Long-term contacts are a big success, beacuase they mean new cklients. Their number is now lower than in past, because foreign companies has trained czech employees and they already have their living, or do not require such the luxury living.

‘Today most of my clients are French. They move to Prague 5, wherethe French lycée has been built. They want to live as close as possible so that their children do not have to travel a long way, but not in the centre, beacuse they want to live there for two or three years.

Principle of a success is quality
There are several real estate agencies with the same aim, but there is no rivalry among them. Their owners contact each other and change their experience. The same approach has five women – owners of real estate agencies. They are convicned that common project can be more succesful in comparing with individual work. ,, We are in a state of discussions, but I believe it is a near future, I consider co-operation the following step in our work“.

Unless M. Mihinová spent long hours with her clients showing them residential houses, she is looking for new clients as well as deals with the owners of potential new houses for rent. Except intermediation of the houses she must be diplomat, to feel the needs of clients. She insists on responsibility, so the company has good reputation based on the results of her work, confirmed by the clients – owners of the houses as well as tenants who returns repeatedly to V.I.P. Homes.

The most demanding are film companies, which require accommodation for their stars. Their demands to the accomodations is sometimes impossible to fulfill, so far there are no such the houses in Prague or they are long-term rented – eg request of Tom Hanks for numerous bedrooms was not satisfied, but they met requirements of the managers from foreign companies like Coca Cola, Philip Morris, Rolls Roys, Peugeot, Credit Lyonnais and another. They offer houses and flats for rent in most required areas like Old Town, Vinohrady, Hanspaulka a Ořechovka or Hřebenka.

M. Mihinová knows from her previous experience in airport traffic that customers appreciate high quality services. She knows very well that quality is the condition of success and she has to conform her private life, so she has no free time after hours of every-day work. Sometimes she hardly can find two hours a week for yoga, which helps her to make hectic life-style calm down.